NEW DELHI: Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath has called for an end to export subsidies and domestic support in the farm sector by developed countries. ``These steps must precede market access to developing countries and not the other way round,'' he stressed.

Addressing the valedictory session of the ``Pre-Hong Kong Ministerial Stakeholder Consultation Workshop on Agriculture Negotiations'' here on Wednesday, he made it clear that India would not go beyond a certain point to open up its market in the ongoing agriculture talks in the Doha round of World Trade Organisation (WTO).

He said farm trade had to be made fair to all, before insisting on free trade, by correcting artificiality of prices. Besides, there were certain ``Laxman rekhas'' beyond which India would not go to protect the interests of poor farmers.

He said market access commitments by developed and developing countries should ensure wider distribution of benefits to all nations. As far as developing countries are concerned, he said the commitments to market access would have to help in alleviating poverty, promoting rural development, and safeguarding livelihoods and food security. It was for this reason, developing countries such as India succeeded in re-vitalising the G-33 coalition on Special Products and the Special Safeguard Mechanism.

Mr. Kamal Nath, who has just returned from the informal ministerial meeting of the WTO at Dalian in China, said the European Union (EU) indicated that it would effect the steepest cuts in domestic support in agriculture, provided the U.S. and Japan agreed to undertake at least second order cuts. "We support this view, and the G-20 has come out with the concrete proposal on this... .The G-20 has proposed a standstill in export subsidies, coupled with frontloading of elimination commitments so that the more obvious forms of distorting policies are completely eliminated by 2010", he said.

Noting that agriculture was at the core of the negotiations, Mr. Kamal Nath said "we were able to convince the major players that attempts to force the Swiss Formula in agricultural tariff reduction would not work."

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